A Committee meets regularly and is made up of at least three patriots (typically more), all with equal votes. It conducts business formally using standard parliamentary rules like any civic organization: nonprofits, HOA’s, churches, societies, etc. See the Code of Conduct.
Roles
The following two roles are required:
- Chair. Leads the meeting, ensures rules are followed and keeps the meeting on track..
- Secretary. Takes meeting minutes and keeps the official record of Committee activity, including who made a motion, who seconded, and whether the motion passed (but not who voted for what).
If a Committee is to handle money, a Treasurer is required. The Committee can create other roles at its pleasure, for example, “election integrity chair” or “media chair”.
To write Proclamations, the Committee should appoint an ad-hoc subcommittee or person to draft it.
Rules
Committees would typically meet weekly in person. Having announced a meeting time and place in advance, a majority of the Committee must be present at the meeting to conduct business (a quorum).
- Meetings are not open to the public.
- For the Committee to consider an item for discussion, a member must first make a Motion to introduce the item and a different member must second it.
- After discussion, the Motion is then voted on and a majority is required to pass it.
- A Committee can only consider one Motion at a time.
Workflow
After a Committee is created, its members should select a Chairman by a simple majority vote. The Chairman presides over each meeting and ensures the Committee is conducting business according to the rules Committees would typically meet weekly in person. Here is a typical workflow:
- Call to order. The Chairman calls the meeting to order.
- Introducing a Motion. A Committee Member introduces a Motion. For example, “I move to invite the people of the neighboring city of Springfield to elect patriots to a Committee of Correspondence to link our two cities together.”
- Seconding a Motion. A Motion must be seconded by a different Member to be considered by the Committee. If it is not seconded, the Motion is ignored and any Member may introduce another Motion. A Member does not have to agree with the Motion to second it—seconding it only means the Member thinks it is worthy of further discussion. Example, “I second the motion.”
- Discussion. The Committee then discusses the pros and cons of the Motion.
- Voting. The Chairman conducts a simple majority vote on the Motion. Example: “All in favor? All opposed?”
- More Business. A Member can then introduce a new Motion, for example, “I move that a subcommittee be formed to draft the invitation to the patriots of Springfield before next week’s meeting.” And so on.
- Meeting is Adjourned. The Chairman announces the meeting is adjourned when the prescribed time is reached or Members have no more business to discuss.
Using the example above, the subcommittee tasked with drafting the invitation would do so between meetings and have it ready for adoption at the next meeting, during which a Member would introduce a Motion to adopt it, someone else would second it, it would be discussed and voted on. Perhaps it would be sent back to the subcommittee for edits, or maybe it moves forward and gets sent.